Writing Practices in Swedish Teacher Education and the Inclusion/Exclusion of Subjectivities

Taguchi, Hillevi Lenz

Critical Studies in Education, v50 n2 p145-158 Jun 2009

Against the background of an increasing drop-out rate of students with ethnic minority and working-class backgrounds, the aim of this paper is to discuss the ways in which writing practices in Swedish teacher education produce power and include/exclude subjectivities. A "conventional academic writing practice" will be compared to a "hybrid writing practice" that has been experimented with for several years at the Stockholm Institute of Education. This hybrid writing practice is characterized by two intertwined features: a divergent complicity that combines diverse subjectivities and multiple theories in a multigenre text; and a convergent and reductive shift that makes academic writing accessible. As the paper will show, a hybrid writing practice can strengthen the inclusion of students with ethnic minority and working-class backgrounds and, in turn, help them finish their programs. It is, however, not bereft of all exclusionary tendencies. (Contains 2 notes.)